Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 38 > Chapter 5 > Article 3 - Elected Officials' Retirement Plan

• Accumulated contributions: means the sum of all member contributions deducted from the member's salary pursuant to section 38-810, subsection A plus the amount transferred to the fund on behalf of the member plus the amount deposited in the fund pursuant to section 38-816. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Actuarial equivalent: means equality in present value of the aggregate amounts expected to be received under two different forms of payment, based on mortality and interest assumptions adopted by the board. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Alternate payee: means the spouse or former spouse of a participant as designated in a domestic relations order. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Average yearly salary: means the result obtained by dividing the total salary paid to an employee during a considered period by the number of years, including fractional years, in which the salary was received. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Board: means the board of trustees of the system. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Credited service: means the number of whole and fractional years of a member's service as an elected official after the elected official's effective date of participation for which member and employer contributions are on deposit with the fund, plus credited service transferred to the plan from another retirement system or plan for public employees of this state, plus service as an elected official before the elected official's effective date of participation that is being funded pursuant to a joinder agreement pursuant to section 38-815 or service that was redeemed pursuant to section 38-816. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Cure period: means the ninety-day period in which a participant or alternate payee may submit an amended domestic relations order and request a determination, calculated from the time the plan issues a determination finding that a previously submitted domestic relations order did not qualify as a plan approved domestic relations order. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Determination: means a written document that indicates to a participant and alternate payee whether a domestic relations order qualifies as a plan approved domestic relations order. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Determination period: means the ninety-day period in which the plan must review a domestic relations order that is submitted by a participant or alternate payee to determine whether the domestic relations order qualifies as a plan approved domestic relations order, calculated from the time the plan mails a notice of receipt to the participant and alternate payee. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Direct rollover: means a payment by the plan to an eligible retirement plan that is specified by the distributee. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Distributee: means a member, a member's surviving spouse or a member's spouse or former spouse who is the alternate payee under a plan approved domestic relations order. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Domestic relations order: means an order of a court of this state that is made pursuant to the domestic relations laws of this state and that creates or recognizes the existence of an alternate payee's right to, or assigns to an alternate payee the right to, receive a portion of the benefits payable to a participant. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Effective date of participation: means August 7, 1985, except with respect to employers and their elected officials whose contributions to the plan commence after that date, in which case the effective date of their participation in the plan is specified in the applicable joinder agreement. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Elected official: means :

  (a) Every elected official of this state who was a member of the plan on December 31, 2013. See Arizona Laws 38-801

• Eligible child: means an unmarried child of a deceased active or retired member who meets one of the following qualifications:

  (a) Is under eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 38-801

• Eligible retirement plan: means any of the following that accepts a distributee's eligible rollover distribution:

  (a) An individual retirement account described in section 408(a) of the internal revenue code. See Arizona Laws 38-801

• Eligible rollover distribution: means a payment to a distributee, but does not include any of the following:

  (a) Any distribution that is one of a series of substantially equal periodic payments made not less frequently than annually for the life or life expectancy of the member or the joint lives or joint life expectancies of the member and the member's beneficiary or for a specified period of ten years or more. See Arizona Laws 38-801

• Embezzlement: In most states, embezzlement is defined as theft/larceny of assets (money or property) by a person in a position of trust or responsibility over those assets. Embezzlement typically occurs in the employment and corporate settings. ^{Source: OCC}
• Employer: means a department, agency or political subdivision of this state that makes employer contributions to the plan pursuant to section 38-810 on behalf of an elected official who participates in the plan. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• fiscal year: means the period beginning on July 1 of any year and ending on June 30 of the next succeeding year. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Fund: means the elected officials' retirement plan fund. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Grantor: includes every person from or by whom an estate or interest in real property passes, in or by a deed. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Minor: means a person under eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Month: means a calendar month unless otherwise expressed. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Notice of receipt: means a written document that is issued by the plan to a participant and alternate payee and that states that the plan has received a domestic relations order and a request for a determination that the domestic relations order is a plan approved domestic relations order. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Participant: means a member who is subject to a domestic relations order. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Pension: means a series of monthly payments to a person who is entitled to receive benefits under the plan. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Person: includes a corporation, company, partnership, firm, association or society, as well as a natural person. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Personal representative: means the personal representative of a deceased alternate payee. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Physician: means a physician who is licensed pursuant to Title 32, Chapter 13 or 17. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Plan: means the elected officials' retirement plan. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Plan approved domestic relations order: means a domestic relations order that the plan approves as meeting all the requirements for a plan approved domestic relations order as otherwise prescribed in this article. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Retired member: means a person who is being paid a pension based on the person's credited service as a member of the plan. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Segregated funds: means the amount of benefits that would currently be payable to an alternate payee pursuant to a domestic relations order under review by the plan, or a domestic relations order submitted to the plan that failed to qualify as a plan approved domestic relations order, if the domestic relations order were determined to be a plan approved domestic relations order. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• System: means the public safety personnel retirement system. See Arizona Laws 38-801
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Writ: means an order or precept in writing issued in the name of the state or by a court or judicial officer. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215